Music Video and Genre Conventions

I conformed to the use of low angle shots within my music video. Using a low angle shot makes the artist the biggest and most important thing in the frame, which shows how the artists has dominance over their audience and how they are within the frame to be looked upon.

Slow songs are more likely to have high angle shots to show the artist vulnerability through the camera dominating them, contrasting the use of the low angle. As the tone of my chosen song was quite slow I chose to conform to this and use a high angle shot.

I used different angles within my video as varied angles are conventions of music videos and including them aids the narrative of my video.

Angles

Eye Contact

I have conformed to the music video convention of having the singer look directly into the camera while in a close up as a way to create a direct link with the audience. I did also challenge this convention because while I did use eye contact in close up, most of the eye contact is in during a medium shot. I chose to do this as I wanted the singer to be connected to the audience through the eye contact but as I used it in a medium shot it creates some distance. I added this distance so that when the close up eye contact comes in then it feels like the audience are closer with the artist.

Crane and Wide Shot

I have chose to challenge the typical music video conventions of using a crane shot or a wide shot within my video. Crane shots are often used on live performances (such as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody) or in much larger locations than the ones that I have used. I feel the use of a crane shot within my video would ruin the intimate feel of the video by putting the camera at a large distance. I chose not to use a wide shot (like in Foo Fighter’s The Pretender) as wide shots are most seen in a fast song, and as my video does not feature narrative and has a slow pace then I chose not to use one.

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody Foo Fighters – The Pretender

Medium Shot

I conformed to the pop convention of using a medium shot within my music video. They are used within pop to show the background as well as the artist, like in Carly Rae Jepson’s Call Me Maybe as she uses the medium shot to show that she is on the ground and not stood. I used these throughout my video as I wanted the lip syncing and the movements of the artist to be obvious but I wanted to show the different backgrounds and what they mean within the video.

My video

Carly Rae Jepson – Call Me Maybe

Long Shot

I have conformed to the pop convention of having a long shot within my music video but challenged the way it is typically used. Conventionally, a long shot within pop music videos is used during the narrative to show a party. The long shot allows for all of the characters at the party to be seen together to prove that it is a party environment, like in Katy Perry’s T.G.I.F. Where I challenged the convention is making my long shot just show the single singer and the brick wall. I have used it for performance and removed the party as this was not part of my idea.

My video

Katy Perry – T.G.I.F

Instruments

I have conformed to the music video convention of using instrument within a video. I chose to use a microphone, in a similar way to Carley Rae Jepson in Call Me Maybe. I chose just a microphone as the song I have chosen is pop which usually means not instrumental in the sense of guitars and drums but it about the lyrics and the voice, so I used a microphone as a way to enhance the performance, putting emphasis on the singer’s voice and words.

My video

Carly Rae Jepson – Call Me Maybe

Lip syncing

A convention of music videos, that have performance elements, is to have the artist lip syncing to the song, such as DNCE’s Cake By The Ocean. As my video is completely performance I made sure that the artist was lip syncing to all of the words as her mouth could always be seen.

My video

DNCE – Cake By The Ocean

Clothes

Within my video I conformed to the pop conventions about clothes. As my artist is female it is stereotypical to see them in a dress that is often revealing as a way to sexualise and femininize the singer. I broke this convention slightly by having my artist in a crop top and matching skirt. The use of a crop top reveals more skin on the stomach where as a dress wouldn’t, but the crop top covers other areas, such as arms, that wouldn’t normally be covered. As a way to challenge the femininity I made the outfit blue break the stereotype of blue being for boys, with the blue making her look more elegant.

Clothes

I conformed to the pop performance convention of having the female artist wearing a dress. While she is wearing a dress, which is quite short and with a low-cut neck line to conform to the sexualised image of the artist, the dress is covered by quite a large coat and she is wearing tights. The coat is could be seen as fashionable, due to the fur, and would conform to that convention as well. I chose to make the dress black to follow to the idea of a ‘little black dress’ that is very common in fashion culture.

Make-up

The singer is wearing make up in all of the different scene within the video, as make up is conventionally used within music videos to enhance a person’s beauty. In the studio I had her wear brighter and more noticeable pink make up to match the location she was in and to conform to the pop convention of wearing make up to further the message of the song, the connotations of pink being the same as the song which is why it is both her make up and the background. In the other locations her make up is a lot less noticeable, but still present. I had her wear natural make up as a way to further the natural beauty look I wanted to achieve, which is also why I chose outdoor locations.

Clothes

I chose to challenge the pop music convention of having a female singer wearing a dress during the performance aspects of the video. But I slightly conformed by having her wear popular clothing, such as skinny jeans and heeled boots. I was mainly challenging the clothing convention as she is not wearing any revealing clothing as it matches the tone of the song, which is not overly sexualised like a lot of pop music. However, skinny jeans are used to be form fitting, so her figure can still be seen, which conforms to Laura Mulvey’s idea of the ‘male gaze’.

Colour scheme

It is convention for pop music colours to have bright colours within the music video, which is why I choose locations where this could be possible. For the outdoor locations such as the woods the brick wall I made sure they were naturally bright colours, the greens on the trees being bright and for the wall having it be a deep but eye catching red. For the studio location I added red lighting to the backdrop, giving it a bright pink glow, a colour that is most associated with the pop genre.

Movement

The sensual way she moves is part of the image she is trying to sell to her audience, creating a juxtaposition between the sexual icon she wants to be and the innocent girl she portrays herself as in the other locations. Often in pop videos there is a confusion as to the age of the artist which creates a sense of confusion when mixed with the sensual dance moved and innocent dance moves. But this confusion is seen a lot within pop, and could be considered a convention.

For these scenes within the studio I was inspired Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass, specifically the colour scheme. The colour scheme within the video is very conventional of the pop genre and as my video is within the pop genre then I want to achieve the same thing. The use of a studio location and infinity screen in the background also conforms to the conventions of pop.

The use of the pink background relates well to the genre as the most common colour associated with pop is the colour pink. The pink also accentuates the colour of the artists hair, making it stand out more than the colour itself already does. The pink also symbolising the femininity of the artist and creating links between her and the title of the song. Using a blue costume creates a contrast against the pink and is a bright colour within the mise-en-scene.

Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass

My video Location

One of the locations seen within the music video is a brick wall on High Street. I chose this as a background as brick walls are often presented to be tough, strong, and difficult to knock down. These connotations are something that I wanted to be applied to my artist as well and placing her in front of the wall creates a link between the two. I wanted my artist to appear strong as it relates to the message of the song, which is about unrequited love, and if she comes across as strong in the same way as the wall then it will show to her audience what type of person she is. This is giving a positive image to the audience and as the pop demographic is mostly teenagers then this is spreading a positive message to her audience as they are at an age in which they will first start experiencing this type of love. Conventionally, pop music videos often target their videos to their audience which is why I made sure that there was an ideology behind this location.

I chose to use a brick wall background as another one of my locations as this breaks the typical conventions of a pop video. The use of a wall has features in other pop videos, such as One Direction’s – History, but this was the only example that I found within my research. I was inspired by One Directions break in the typical locations for their music video, which is why I included it within my own.

My video

One Direction – History

Location

I chose to use these woods specifically and have the artist against the suburban houses and fence rather than more woods. I did this because the woods added to the natural feel that I wanted to achieving, matching the natural beauty of the artist. I included the fence and houses in the background to link to her outfit in these scenes. This outfit does not fit the pop convention of wearing dresses but it does conform to the one about the artist wearing fashionable clothing. The fence in the background adds to the connotations that the song has. The song being about unrequited love but as it is unrequited the artist could be considered trapped, which is the reason why I have the fence in the background as a way to physically represent this trapped feeling. It is often conventional to have the mise-en-scene further the meaning.

For the woods location I was inspired by Taylor Swift’s Out of the Woods. I chose to make my location a lot brighter and natural-looking than Taylors as it was the actual woods themselves that I wanted to use. I wanted a location that was typically unconventional within the pop genre and I found that a wooded area was not seen often within the genre.

My video

Taylor Swift – Into The Woods

Location

Editing

I conformed to the music video convention of rhythmic editing as all or most of the cuts are on a beat in the song. I made sure that every cut fit on a beat yet flowed seamlessly. I also conformed to the pop music convention of using a filter on clips while editing. I added a filter to some of the clips as a way to correct the colour and put more emphasis on the singer rather than the location within these clips. Some editing that I chose to challenge was adding animation. As I wanted my video to appear natural the idea of adding animation would ruin the tone of the video and make it appear somewhat fake. I also chose to challenge the use of tints as tints would ruin the colour scheme I wanted and tried to achieve within each of the different locations.

Narrative

I wanted to challenge the conventions of typical pop videos by not including narrative such as story or a hybrid of both performance and story. I chose to make my video completely performance as the use of performance does conform to pop conventions but a full video does not. I chose to do this a way to show that the singer is happy with her music and this can be seen on her face while she is singing, and a singer being enthusiastic about their music is a convention of pop music. As I did not have any story narrative within my video I challenged that convention but that also means I challenged many other conventions that are based around story. I opposed the use of a love narrative, even if the song is based around love, and I challenged the use of a party within my video as the tone of the song would not work with a party. I both challenged and conformed to the use of voyeurism within my video. While I didn’t have the singer being voyeuristic, which is typical convention, the video itself could be called a voyeuristic video with the audience being the voyeurs and with the way that the camera is always on the artist, in a ‘Male Gaze’ type way, could created an argument that I did conform to the use of voyeurism.